Process for the concentration of acetylene



ug. 5, 1947. R. M. lsHAM PROCESS FOR THE CNCENTRATI-ON 0F ACETYLENE Filed July 13,v 1942 Patented @95,1947 i f 2,424,987

UNrrl-:o STATES PATENT OFFICE PROCESS FOR THE CONCENTRATION OF ACETYLENE Robert M. Isham, Okmulgee, Okla., assigner to Danciger Oil 8: Reineres, Inc., Fort Worth, Tex., a corporation of Texas A Application July 13, 1942, Serial No. 450,771

1 Claim. (Cl. 18S-115) l This invention relates to a method of extract- The emcacy of the described groups of coming acetylene fromgaseous mixtures thereof. pounds for the purposes of the invention "can As is known, acetylenemay be produced by readily be appreciated from a consideration of thermal treatment of hydrocarbons by a variety l the data in Table I which shows the solubility of methods. Among such methods are the treat- 5 of the various gases (in the reaction mixtures ment of hydrocarbons of the methane and which are treated) in typical of such oxygenated ethylene series by controlled pyrolysis; passage furan derivatives.

of such hydrocarbons through an electric arc, Table I incomplete combustion and the like. In all such methods the reaction product is a. gaseous mix- Y ture containing a. relatively small percentage of Solvent CZE C@ CH* H C0 C0 N acetylene. Depending upon the process employed this gaseous mixture includes hydrogen, ufurll acetate 7.271 l 67 0 69 0 00 0 098 318 0'57 ethylene. 'I'he reaction mixture may also con- 15 Tetghydmfurfury, l; 06 34 0 70 0 00 0131 2 46 0-39 acetate tain vapors of benzene, naphthalene and other aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as some carbon black. The results inthe tablel are expressed in vol- A major problem in this art is the separation -umes of the particular gas dissolved in unit volof the several constituents and particularly the urne of the solvent, at approximately 25 C. It concentration and/or separation of the acetylene will be observed that the solvents of this class from the reaction mixture. v are particularly effective for the desired use.

In the past it has been suggested to use selec- They present no solubility for hydrogen, Telative solvents to separate the acetylene. For this tively 10W Solubility fOr methane, carbon monpurpose various solvents have been proposed such oxide and nitrogen and present marked selecas, esters of polyhydric alcohols, esters of polytivity for acetylene, particularly. as against basic acids, polyketones, aliphatic lactones and ethylene. It' is to be observed also that the the like. As explained in copending application, oxygenated derivatives of tetrahydrofuran pos- Serial No. 415,975, led October 21, 1941, now sess a higher solvent power for acetylene than Patent No. 2,383,551, issued August 28, 1945,'the 30 the oxygenated derivatives of furan. The ability selective solvent extraction of the acetylene may of these solventsto dissolve approximately ve comprise a step in a continuous operation in times or more acetylene than ethylene estabwhich the crude reaction gases 4are irst scrubbed lishes them as excellent solvents for the purto remove aromatic constituents and then are `poses of the invention. contacted with a selective solvent to produce a In carrying out the process the crude gaseous product enriched in acetylene. reaction mixture may, if desired, be subjected These extraction products, though enriched in to any preliminary treatment, such as scrubacetylene contain appreciable amounts of other bing with straw oil to remove benzol and other gases present in the original gas mixture. For aromatic constituents and the gas may then be somepurposes it is desirable to remove such other 40 treated with one of the group of solvents mengases, particularly ethylene before the recovered tioned to enrich it in acetylene. For this puracetylene can be utilized. In any event there is a posethe gas containing the acetylene is preferreal need in the eld'for readily available maably compressed and then contacted with the teriais which present a good solvent power for solvent in the proper ratio. 'I'his contact may acetylene and are further characterized by a high be done most eiectively in a countercurrent sysselectivity for acetylene. tem. Upon separation of the solvent and evolu- As a. result of extensive experimentation in tion of the dissolved gases, by reduction of presthis eld it has been ascertained that certain sure coupled with the application of heat if deheterocyclic compounds having an oxygenated sired, a gaseous mixture greatly enriched in side chain, notably oxygenated derivatives of acetylene is produced. As will be appreciated, furan admirably full the criteria, of good selecthe present improvement, i. e., the step of entive solvents for acetylene.

riching a. gas in acetylene may be embodiedin In order to fully describe .the essential prinany continuous method of treating reaction gases4 ciples of the invention the main steps of a typical of the type described.

process are illustrated in the ow sheet of Fig. 1. The eflicacyl of this group oi'v solvents will be more readily appreciated, by a consideration of actual operations. A gas mixture was produced by partial combustion of methane and the gase'- ous products were subjected to a countercurrent scrubbing with tetrahydroiuriuryl acetate in a Table 1r C2H2 CaBi CBA Bx N:

Per cent 2. l 3.

Per cent ccnl 3l. 6

Per ce'nt original ges Enriched gas It will be observed from an inspectionl ofthis table that concentration of acetylene in the original gas was increased aboutffteen fold and that the enriched gas contained but about twice as much ethylene as the original gas.

The enriched gas produced by such solvent ex, traction may be used directly for many purposes without further purcation. If desired, the enriched gas may be subjected to further rening to produce an acetylene oi' any desired degree of purity.

' Results equivalent to those indicated above may be secured by employing other solvents of the class described as well as by the use of other furan derivatives containing an oxygenated side chain such as esters of furoic acid.

As will be appreciated, the invention is of broad applicability and may be utilized to treat any gas mixture containing acetylene to obtain a gas enriched in acetylene. The improved method is of special utility embodied in a continuous process in which crude reaction gases are treated to obtain either a gas enriched in acetylene or substantially pure acetylene together with ethylene.

The operation of the improvement in such a complete process is illustratedin Fig. l. As there shown, hydrocarbon gases or vapors are treated in converter I to produce acetylene. This conversion may be eil'ectedl in an electric arc furnace, partial combustion apparatus and the like. The reaction gas as previously noted is a mixture containing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbon black, aromatics such as benzene and naphthalene and of the. alkene and aime hydrocarbons mentioned.

The gaseous mixture may then be treated to remove and recover the carbon black.. This may be done in any -suitable separating apparatus such as a filter or, as shown, in a Cottrell precipitator 2.

, The gas mixture, freed of the entrained solids is then preferably treated to remove the aromatic constituents. This may be done by passing the gas to the scrubber I and subjecting it to countercurrent scrubbing with a suitable solvent. As explained in copending application Serial No.

415,975, a particularly effective solvent for this purpose is "iimpid oil. i. e., a mixture of coal tar hydrocarbons boilingbetween 220 C. and 264 C. This solvent very effectively extracts the vapors `2% to about 5% acetylene.

of benzene and naphthalene from the gas stream. The solvent is passed to a stripper in which it is separated from the aromatics by 'distilling off and condensing the vapors of the aromatic hydrocarbons. The stripped solvent, as shown, is recycled for further extraction.

The gas which is denuded of aromatics may then be passed to the compressor 5 yin which it is compressed to any desired degree and the compressed gas is passed to the solvent extraction tower 6. While compression of the gas prior to contact with the novel solvents is desirable it will be appreciated that this is vnot essential for the improvement described herein broadly comprehends enrichment of acetylene by treatment of either gaseous or liquid mixtures thereof.

In the extraction stage 6 the compressed gas is contacted, preferably countercurrently, with a stream of one of the class of solvents described. The solvent with its preferentially dissolved acetylene accumulates in the base of the apparatus and is passed to the stripping column 'l to separate the solvent from the acetylene and other dissolved gases. As noted previously this may readily be done by reducing the pressure in tower 'l 'to evolve the gases as an overhead fraction. This action may be accelerated, if desired, by heating the solvent extract. The solvent accumulating in the base of tower l, as'shown, is recycled to extraction column 6 for` further extraction. The components of the gaseous mixture which are not extracted by the solvent may be drawn oi from tower 8 through line 8 and treated in any desired manner.

The gases withdrawn overhead from tower 'I are highly enriched in acetylene having a composition comparable to the sample given in Table l1. For many purposes such an enriched gas may be used directly and if so desired it may be withdrawn from the system through line 9. For certain purposes it is desirable to Iurther purify this gas, as for example, when the acetylene is to be hydrated to acetaldehyde. This hydration is effected in the presence of a mercury catalyst. Ethylene rapidly destroys this catalyst and hence acetylene for this conversion must be free of ethylene.

As described in the copending application this purification may be effected by fractionating the acetylene-ethylene mixture in the presence of carbon dioxide. 4Such a separation may be utilized gas mixture is passed through line ill, together with the requisite amount of C02 (if not present naturally 1in the gas) into the fractionating system l I, in which the gas is compressed to partial liquefaction and is fractionally distilled to separate a liquid fraction containing acetylene and carbon dioxide and a gas fraction containing ethylene and carbon dioxide. These fractions may then be separately treated to remove the contained carbon dioxide, as for example, by scrubbing with a selective solvent for carbon dioxide, such as an aqueous solution of an alkali carbonate, triethanolamine and the like.

. The class of solvents described herein are ot peculiar utility in this eld. It is to be observed that their high solvent power for acetylene is of special value since the reaction gases which are treated contain but a minor percentage 0f acetylene; such gases usually analyze between about The high solvent power of the improved solvents thus insures high extraction with relatively low ratios of circulated solvent. Similarly the high selectivity of this 5 group ofsolvents is a salient; and unpredictable characteristic. This selectivity, as against ethylene is so marked that the treatment 'described substantially constitutes a solvent fractionation of acetylene and ethylene. This is clearly apparent from an inspection of Table II wherein the enriched gas contained but slightly more ethylene than the initial gas whereas the acetylene content of the enriched gas was tremendously increased.

While specific examples of the improved type of selective solvents for acetylene have been described it is to be understood that these are given to illustrate the value of the stated group of polar compounds having the described desirable characteristics.

I claim:

In the concentration of acetylene from gaseous mixtures thereof. which comprises, contacting the mixture with tetrahydrofurfuryl acetate.

ROBERT M. ISHAM.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 5 le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Isnam Dee. a, 1936'V 

